Necromancer Class Suggestion

So during one of the streams the Necromancer was mentioned as a possible class in the future, and last week the topic of what suggestions for a necromancer came up. Personally I love the class in games so I've had some fun thinking up some ideas:

Weapons/Hand-Held Items
Tome: A book containing dark knowledge of necromancy used to cast spells ("Legendary" could be a Necronomicon :p)

Skills/Play-style

The main mechanic of the Necromancer would be its curse/minion mechanic

Curses: the necromancer has access to curses, debuffs that he places on enemies to reduce there effectiveness in combat.
If a target dies while under the effects of a curse it activates a bonus on death effect such as summoning a minion, a burst of healing to nearby allies, of a buff

Currently I have a few in mind;

Curse of Weakness - Reduces targets damage and attack speed , on death spawns a Skeleton Warrior , a minion with a kit for tanking (shield and one-handed weapon and skills that taunt enemies)

Curse of Bleeding - Target takes more damage from attacks and hits have an increase chance to critical, on death spawns a Skeleton Archer , a minion with a DPS kit (bow and ranger skills)

Curse of Vulnerability - Decreases targets magical resistances , on death spawns a Skeleton Mage , a minion with a mage kit (wand/orb and wizard skills)

Curse of the Wraith - A curse that deals DoT to target, on death curse creates a specter that seeks out a new target can occur a max amount of time

The curses that summon minions (Weakness, Bleeding, Vulnerability) also act as a way for player to direct minions to attack certain target ex: skeleton archer will attack an enemy under curse of bleeding , warrior curse of weakness etc.

Only one of each curse can be active at once , casting the curse again on another target removes the effect from the previous target. Only 1 curse of each type can effect an enemy at once so multiple necromancers can't stack the effects , however the mark effect still applies.

Minions: the necromancer is known for summoning undead to aid them in combat. The challenge comes from giving enough minions to make sure the necromancer can play solo efficiently , but not too many to overwhelm players in groups while also allowing the player a way to control each minion easily.

The main way to summon minions is with the curse mechanic which also acts a the way to control the undead. Beside the 3 skeletons mentioned in curse section , necromancers could have access to a few others:

Summon Skeleton: a basic summon the necromancer starts with , armed with a simple one handed weapon its not specialized like the other minions and doesn't requires a on death effect meaning it can be easily summoned early levels.

Summon Skeleton Knight: an advanced powerful skeleton armed with heavy armor and large two-handed weapon and skills , meant as a ultimate summon to fight mini-bosses with a decently large cool-down.

Beside the curse/minions the necromancer also has access to some attack spells and utility spells

Other Spells:

Necrotic Bolt: basic magic attack that deal necrotic damage , it also acts as the marker for Skeleton and Skeleton Knight spells

Grasp of the Dead: a AoE slow , creates a zone of specter arms that reach from the ground and slow enemies

Solo Play: early level the necromancer relies on using the basic summon skeleton and bolt to engage , later levels using curses to create a small army of undead with specific roles during the dungeon.
Group Play: necromancers use the curses to help the group by targeting enemies and reducing their effectiveness, and minions help fill missing roles/support them .

This still has some work to do , so suggestions and comments are welcome

This variation has a spell called Ava-cadaver , a spell that reanimates dead corpses into zombies that last for 5 minutes before turning to ash. The zombies are used to "Zerg" enemies relying on numbers to overwhelm whatever the necromancer is currently attacking.

To help provide extra utility I added a suggestion to allow the necromancer to be able to summon and control 1 of 3 special undead minions : we came up with a Larger "Tank" Zombie made from remains of corpses stitched together , and a immobile Lich with and aura that slows and damages enemies with cold damage for CC

I think the main ranged attack for the Necromancer that would work well in K&H without being too powerful is a homing skull that would seek out nearby targets.

We had that as the main ranged spell for the Necromancer class when I worked on the Wizard Wars mod from ages ago and it worked pretty well. I'll see if I can find some video and post it in this thread later.

He also had a raise dead spell that would raise allied skeleton minions from fallen foes that worked pretty good in combat as well.

The Necromancer is the master of the dark arts, using black magic to bring death to its enemies and reanimating the fallen to bend to their cause. In combat the Necromancer relies on ice and death attacks to damage enemies, while utilizing curses to reduce foes combat effectiveness. However death is no escape for those unfortunate to fall to the curses of the necromancer: the lingering magic transforms the slain into foul undead to serve the necromancer and act as living (or in this case un-living) embodiment of the curses. The Necromancer is a master of death, and reaping the rewards for heralding it, each death from his spells granting the Necromancer a new boon: whether its a powerful new minion to command or an increase in his magical strength, death is only the beginning...

The Necromancers primary attributes are Intelligence and Charisma , and secondary attribute is Spell Power

The Necromancer preferred weapons are phylacteries and scepters

The Necromancer's main mechanics are the on-death and curse/reanimation.

Most of the Necromancers spells have an "on-death" effect, when an enemy is slain by/while effected by a necromancers spell it triggers and additional effect.

The most powerful spells of the Necromancer's arsenal are the curses/reanimation spells: The Necromancer has access to curses, debuffs that affect a single target with a effect that weakens them (increase damage taken, reduced defenses etc.) and if the target dies while under a curse they are effected by the on-death effect "reanimation".

Reanimation summons a undead minion with the ability to apply a weaker form of the curse to multiple targets (aura's , AoE, etc.) and can last for several minutes to several seconds. After reanimating the curse spell icon can be activated again to cause the undead to use a special ability that applies a weaker version of that curse

Ex: Necromancer casts the Curse of the Draugr which significantly reduces the targets damage dealt , if they die while under the curse they are reanimated as a Draugr. The Draugr is an large undead useful to act as a tank , casting Curse of the Draugr activates a AoE burst around the Draugr that taunts all nearby enemies and reduces their damage dealt.

Only 1 of each curse can be active on a target at one time, and multiple of the same curses don't stack on the same target.

Most of the damage capable spells of the Necromancer are single target Ice and Death spells to quickly kill cursed targets and reanimate them into minions along with a few utility spells to help defend themselves and increase the effectiveness of their minions , however the bulk of their abilities are in curses/reanimations.

Early levels the Necromancer will rely on simple attacks and cheap basic zombie minions to get through dungeons, but as they level up they will have access to more useful curses and minions that help them CC enemies and Bosses. Solo play the necromancer relies mostly on amassing a small army composed of different undead to get through dungeons , letting their minions do most of the work while they attack/direct from afar. In group play the Necromancer assists the party through curses , using them to reduce the difficulty of hard enemies and bosses while using their specialized minions to help fill in gaps in roles such as tanks and dps.

Specifics about spells, minions, and explanations of weapons will come later.

@Gruntled-Employee I agree with this, Massively. Homing Skulls sounds like a splendid idea, as long as it not able to do superb amounts of damage and the skulls are laughing as they fly.

OK I found a video someone recorded in playing Wizard Wars HL mod with bots. Remember the mod was designed initially to be a fantasy version of Team Fortress Classic.
Here's the part of the necromancer using the homing skull attack: https://youtu.be/YBV056QZ4S8?t=6m56s
I remember trying to animate the FPS view mode for that spell, had to do some weird workarounds to get the chattering skull animated properly.

In case anyone is interested, here's another video I found showing all the different classes/spells in the game, the guy did a great walkthrough, and explanation of everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4kqHXLY6W4